Live mix by DJ Bandcamp.
Tracklist:
01. “Fosarune” – Rani Jambak
Rani Jambak is an artist based in Medan, North Sumatra and is of Minangkabau descent, her family migrating from West Sumatra. I’m interested in her work with field recordings, as a mode of environmental awareness and activism, and also how she thinks of sound as a means to connect with ancestors. “Fosarune” is her contribution to the Common Tonalities (2022) compilation, an outcome from the multi-year “Nusasonic” program, concerned with experimental music in Southeast Asia, 2018–22. Nusasonic was an initiative of the Goethe-Institutes in Southeast Asia, in partnership with Yes No Klub (Yogyakarta), WSK Festival of the Recently Possible (Manila), Playfreely/BlackKaji (Singapore), and CTM Festival for Adventurous Music & Art (Berlin).
02. “Salamander” – Takkak Takkak
A recent collaboration between Berlin-based Japanese producer Shigeru Ishihara AKA Scotch Rolex/DJ Scotch Egg and Vilnius-based Indonesian composer and instrument builder Mo’ong Santoso Pribadi, who is part of the duo Raja Kirik. Taken from their recent self-titled album Takkak Takkak (2024), released on Nyege Nyege Tapes.
03. “Untitled 10” – Uwalmassa
Uwalmassa is a group formed by Harsya Wahono, Randy Pradipta and Pujangga Rahseta who are also behind the visual arts and music collective DIVISI62 from Jakarta. This track is taken from their 2018 tour release Animisme (DISK15), featuring music “inspired by Indonesia’s urban slums, dangdut and pencak silat.”
04. “Sumergir (Toumba Remix)” – SIM & Sueuga
A recent release by Canadian-born SIM and Netherlands-based Sueuga remixed by Toumba from Jordan, put out by Sacrilejio Records in Lima, Peru. Taking cues from Jamaican dancehall, I suppose this track emphasises global connections, collaboration and genre hybridisation and mutation as evolution. Just don’t call it global bass!
05. “Wangga Rituals (Serial Experiments Edit)” – whypeopledance
From the Lithuanian collective/label’s 2019 compilation MATEDITERIA (MATERIÁ 005). I stumbled onto this gem of a track while searching for music by Aditya Permana, who is also on this compilation and who surface later in the mix as BAUR. I know nothing else about Serial Edits or whypeopledance, but I find this spiky collagist approach to “dance music and anti-dance music” a refreshing contrast to the slick productions that populate my playlists.
06. “Metallurgy Symphony (Simulacrum RMX)” – Dinoj M & SajaS
Dinoj M and SajaS who are involved in DreamSpace Records, Batticaloa are dear friends of fugitive radio. “Metallurgy Symphony” is from Upcycled Rhythms (2023), that repurposes found materials as musical objects. This remix is up on fugitive productions.
07. “Hantaran” – Sipaningkah
Taken from Langkah Suruik (2024), a recent notable release on Chinabot. Coincidently, Aldo Ahmad Fithra, is also Minangkabau West Sumatra, like Rani Jambak. He also invents and builds instruments, such as the “Tasauff”, that is inspired by three traditional Minangkabau musical instruments: the Tasa drum, Talempong gong and Rabab string instrument.
Lagkah Suruik, which translates as “step back” in the Minangkabau language, comes from a concept in the Silat Harimau martial arts philosophy. “The Langkah Suruik is the wisest step, choosing to step back and not fight,” says Sipaningkah. “However, I interpret Langkah Suruik as a way to see, search for and relearn the roots of our personal traditions, so that we can then use them in reading the current world situation.”
08. 나락 Pit – bela
From Noise and Cries 굉음과 울음 (2024) bela’s debut album on Subtext in collaboration with Unsound. Now living in Berlin, bela began developing the ideas for this album “about death” while living in South Korea. Bringing together Western influences guttural death metal growls and rasps and industrial music with the folk rhythms that rattled away in the background of state events and presented with the confidence and “cybernetic maximalism” of contemporary queer club music.
09. “African Sickos Ft. Citizen Boy” – Nazar
Taken the from the Amsterdam-based producer’s Territorial (2020), self-released during the Covid19 pandemic. Nazar is known for developing a style of “rough kuduro” that reflects on his family’s involvement in the Angolian Civil War (1975–2002) and I was drawn to his collagist aesthetics and as a counterpoint to sparser productions featured in this mix.
10. “MAKAN SUMPAH” – bani haykal
A Malay phrase that can be interpreted as “take an oath”, this is the closing track on the Singaporean artist’s recent release ANONYMOUS CURSES (2024) . In a country where protest is not possible, haykal has been steadfast in his support of Palestine, and this album is dedicated to:
the people who are constantly spell casting, sending curses to end tyranny and injustices, those who tirelessly speak of resistance against the violence of colonialism, extractivism, occupation and apartheid.
I was fortunate to see haykal perform live at an event organised by Strange Weather in Singapore, where he set up on a small table, manipulating a drum sequencer and some effects, while performing his prose that he punctuated with ecstatic runs on a clarinet. Later, Yetpet [Instagram] played a sublime set, the memory of which serves as some inspiration for this mix.
11. “Necksnaps” – Wahono
I have somehow overlooked Harsya Wahono, and perhaps to compensate, his work keeps popping up in this mix. This is from an early release Abandoned Hi-Hats (2017) on Maddjazz Recordings , made when Wahono was living in New York after graduating from Berklee College of Music., Boston. Now living in Jakarta, Wohono is the founder of DIVISI62 and is also part of Uwalmassa, heard earlier in this mix. Like Sipaningkah, Wahono’s approach to percussion and drum programming draws on traditional Indonesian instruments and rhythms organised according to club production techniques.
12. “Kuvio” – Ø
An early release from the late Mika Vainio, taken from Metri (1994) released on Sähkö Recordings , a label Vainio co-founded with Tommi Grönlund. I was introduced to this album in the early 2000s by Miguel at Matéria Prima, Porto and it came to mind when returning to Finland this summer. In Singapore and Yogyakarta I became attuned to artists recalling industrial music and “proto-techno” experiments of the 1990s and I suppose this album aligns with those descriptors. Also it’s a lovely, minimal, analogue piece based around repetition and variation; a theme that emerges in this mix.
13. “Kutofaulu” – Wulffluw XCIV
From the first release by Sacrilejio Records in Lima, a compilation Expiation (2020). Wulffluw XCIV AKA Nikita Grunt music is described as “Avant Club”. From Russia he is the first non-African artist to release an album on Nyege Nyege Tapes subsidiary label HAKUNA KULALA, also in 2020. I think the textures are what drew me to this track, layered and detailed with sweeps and pans across the stereo field.
14. “Bussra” – ZULI
I am a fan of ZULI’s jarring rhythms and only learned recently the producer from Cairo had moved to Berlin, where he’s been co-organising a series of club nights, irsh [Instagram] with fellow artist and DJ Rama. This track is from Komy (2023), a collection of five club tracks released to make way for new material. Proceeds from the sales go to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
15. “Fanta Rouge” – Neo Geodesia
Listening to 2562 Neon Flames (2021) was something of a revelation. Saphy Vong’s compositions as Neo Geodesia made up of field recordings, samples and instrumentation a digital production were like nothing I had heard before. I mentioned this to Morgan Sully AKA Memeshift, who concurred saying that he was amazed at how much feeling Vong evoked in his music. This notion of “feeling” in digital music became something of a prompt for this mix, as it is such a difficult thing to qualify. Vong, based in London, is also the founder of the label Chinabot.
16. “Shikorina (Zilla Remix)” – STILL
From the remix collection of STILL’s debut album, I, appropriately titled I (Remixed) (2018) both released on PAN. I became aware of Simone Trabucchi’s moniker gradually via a Slikback remix that stayed for some time in my crate. I am curious about the breadth of the Milan-based producer’s work that spans publishing and visual art. This track is reworked by Don Zilla, manager of Boutiq Studios, Kampala. This is another track I was drawn to due to its layered collaged sound, reminding me of the dub/reggae productions of the likes of the Scientist and Lee Scratch Perry and the Bomb Squad’s hip-hop productions.
The point of connection for many of these artists is Nyege Nyege, and STILL’s following mixtape, video series and book project, KIKOMMANDO, arose out a two month residency at the Ugandan collective’s villa.
17. “Cluster Drum” – 3Phaz
The Cairo based producer is an affiliate of ZULI and this track is from a compilation featuring artists who played at the latter’s video series cum club night, irsh. Humorously titled did you mean: irish (2020) it was released during the Covid19 pandemic. With a reputation for reworking Cairo’s urban Shaabi sound, I first encountered 3Phaz performing a live set at Unsound Festival 2023, a highlight of its club program.
18. “160 (with Gabber Modus Operandi & Wahono)” – Nakibembe Embaire Group
The embaire is a large, long wooden xylophone found in East Africa, that is played simultaneously by multiple performers. The Basoga—an Eastern Bantu ethnic group—have a unique way of playing this instrument and the Nakibembe Xylophone Group are one of the last remaining groups who continue this tradition.
Fixtures of Nyege Nyege Festival, this track is taken from a self-titled 2023 release on Nyege Nyege Tapes with extra production by Gabber Modus Operandi (GMO) and Wahono from Indonesia. From the release notes:
The group needed to work out a way to combine their techniques with GMO and Wahono’s own musical approaches, so they fitted the embaire’s keys with audio-to-MIDI triggers that allowed them to capture the instrument’s swing without drowning out the sound itself. Then, Nakibembe recorded a series of freestyle performances that would demonstrate the range of the instrument; Wahono and GMO took these recordings and the MIDI data and used digital processes to distort and shift the sounds into dangerous new places, adding vocal improvisations from GMO’s Ican Harem. The Indonesian trio wanted to explore a more minimalist approach with Nakibembe, and on ‘140’ do exactly that, slowing down the whir of embaire clunks to a crawl and adding sporadic squeals and punctuating bumps. ‘160’ is even more unexpected, losing the embaire completely and feeding the raw drum data into synthesizers that pop and squeak with the same unmistakable energy.
I was very fortunate to have caught this grouping at CTM 2020 and this release seems to encompass many of the themes that arise out of this mix; repetition and variation, cross-cultural collaboration, tradition and (digital) technology. As the release notes conclude: “dance music is neither static nor bound to its contemporary apparatus, and conversation rather than colonization can stretch concepts beyond phony borders.”
19. “Terowongan Jadi Underpass” – BAUR
I recently met BAUR AKA Aditya Permana during a performance at Yes No Klub Yogyakarta, where he was introduced to me as “a legendary Drum n Bass DJ from Jakarta.” Unpacking a kit of electronics that fitted snugly into a suitcase, BAUR unraveled a set of squelchy rhythms over which he layered distorted phrases and yelps. I was concerned with composition methods at the time, so after his performance I asked him how much of his set was improvised. He replied that he had released a cassette of “songs” that he then deconstructs live, before adding: “it’s my therapy, but it seems other people get something from it as well”—a reply that also solved a lot of my problems!
This funky track is lifted from a cassette release, Pecundang (2024) on DIVISI62 . Translated as “loser”, BAUR is a defiantly analogue project that draws on industrial music shared via tapes in the 1990s
20. “Sad Sunda” – Memeshift
Morgan Sully is a fixture of Berlin’s experimental music scene and this track is taken from this year’s Echoes (2024) on Chinabot, who have also chosen to pursue the cassette medium. Echoes is a self-reflexive suite of music concerned with issues of home, migration and diaspora — memorabilia, ephemeral recordings and memories wired through electronic instruments. From the release notes:
“Sad Sunda”, [which] samples a cassette of ‘pop sunda’, a form of popular music that blends western pop and traditional instrumentation from Java, that his mother brought with the family to Hawaii when they fled Borneo. Composed on an Elektron Octatrack over three decades later, Sully cut the samples into small snippets and randomly resequenced them. The percussion is from Roland CR-78 samples and drum loops pitched down and resampled in the Octatrack; through the frenetic club beats, we hear his current life in Berlin, where he now lives, bleeds into the music of his past.
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Notes
These notes a part of an ongoing task that concerns writing about mixing; about what comes up in the mix and to think about DJing as a kind of (sonic) research.
“Mixed Feelings” is about leaving Singapore, Sri Lanka and the South East Asian region. It was meaningful to be there, reconnecting with family and friends, finding new friends and peers and generally being open to its influence. “Feelings” also refers to an aspect of (digital) music production. Soon after returning to Berlin, I caught up with Morgan Sully AKA Memeshift and was gushing about Neo Geodisia’s 2562 Neon Flames (2021). Morgan concurred commenting that it had a lot of “feeling” for a digital production and I wanted to think about this further. I associate feeling with “emotion”, another term that has connotations for music. I think about “soul music” or power ballads, where certain emotions—joy, fury, heartbreak, angst—are aestheticised and emphasised. It conjures up notions of authenticity which makes me wonder about “cold feelings”, and more reserved or disciplined emotional states. Descriptors such as “surgical” and “precise” are used to describe DJs who rehearse every sequence and can execute their mixes on cue. Do these lack feeling? When I listen to a mix I like to hear the artist’s hand: the tempo being shifted, a slightly off beat being coaxed into place. Which is not to say I don’t practice, but I also like to improvise, to play, to trust and develop my intuition and go with what I am feeling in that moment. Perhaps a more risky approach, as things could go wrong—more chance of “dropping the ball”. Actually, I have mixed feelings about this mix because there are some stand out blunders that make me cringe, but I ran out of time to make another!
I’ve continued to approach DJing like a game and the plan for this mix was to begin with Rani Jambak and end with Memeshift, going by key tracks from Takka Takka, bela, bani haykal, Dinoj M & SajaS, Wahono and BAUR. As I was pruning my crate for this mix, I realised I was preferencing tracks from artists who are friends, peers, or I have met or seen perform in recent months. Notably, many artists are from Indonesia. A set by Yetpet at a Strange Weather event in Singapore in July was a key point of reference; a well-curated and deftly executed mix of unfamiliar tracks. A friend described it as “chilled”, and while it may not have been stocked with “dirty bangers”, it was full of great rhythms and hooks and was somehow euphoric.
While I had a preference for tracks with a lot of percussion and space, I noticed I was selecting tracks for contrast and texture—not all slick club production, but also spiky playful productions (eg Serial Edits), coarse textures (eg Nazar) and space (eg Sipaningkah). Only after recording did I realise that this mix was as much about labels as artist-acquaintances; Yes No Wave, Divisi62, Chinabot, Subtext, PAN, Nyege Nyege Tapes, alongside self-released tracks on Bandcamp. (Indeed, I was surprised to learn I’d published a mix under the same moniker a year ago.)
